One of the benefits of broadcasting a live event is you get to be there for it all, the downside, especially if its the first time you’ve done it with the setup, is that you might spend more time having to fiddle with things and worrying about it than actually enjoying the performances.
That was certainly the case for me on Saturday and Sunday, by Monday I had got my act together and could pay more attention. So what follows is a selective personal view rather than a proper job review.
Friday
The first act failed to turn up so Steve the compere pounced on a young man who happen to have an accordion with him and pulled him from the audience. Very folk community.
Sebastian from Rock – never played on a stage before – gave us a couple of tunes to fill, and still no sign of Harry Devereux, so got out a penny whistle and did a couple more. Described himself as “not a musician” but proved to be a competent performer. Finished with more accordion and a big round of applause. (Emma grabbed him for an interview later which you can find in the Podcast section)
Next up was Steamrocket, a trio playing a mix of old 60/70s Pop songs and folk on 2 guitars and double bass, unfortunately I was distracted by tech, but what I heard was good.
Martha Woods from Lostwithiel played violin with backing by recordings of herself on other instruments and electronics. A good voice and an interesting sound. Would be well worth catching in a club environment. Emma recorded an interview – find it in the podcasts section.
King’s Heathens is a duo of blokes with guitars and voices from Birmingham who played a mix of their own songs and trad tunes. Good fun, but again I could only pay attention intermittently
Toby Webb is a solo guitarist from Falmouth with his own songs of Cornish life finishing with an adaptation of “What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor” bringing it up to date with Saturday night tales of young Falmouth (or anytown) life.
He was followed by something completely different in the 20 man version of Truro Male Voice Choir – doing what male voice choirs do hereabouts.
As the afternoon wore on in the sunshine it was time to get up and dance and Bow Creek provided the necessary. Great energy and fine performances from this quartet of bass and acoustic guitars, squeeze box, and fiddle.
Bradley the Busker came on next as a solo act with a variety of songs most of which I missed trying to work out why everything seemed distorted (due to a schoolboy error on my part).
As afternoon became early evening the Blue Badgers took to the stage – a six piece rollicking folk band provided the perfect finish to an excellent day.
Sunday
The weather was not so kind on Sunday – grey and a bit windy, which caused some problems with the sound. Also a technical problem with the main stage mixing desk caused me some headaches.
First up Glen Chun, who is also the chief steward for the Festival. Solo guitar and fiddle, and clearly a man with musical as well as organisational talents. A good opening set.
Glen was followed by a female acapella group The Drecklys. Of a certain age, as were the songs (and me!), but nothing wrong with that. Nice to hear.
Next up another solo guitar singer, Joeseph Davis, who I missed as I left Emma minding the shop to get some lunch.
JayCee&Bee, an acapella trio, male two female with some good material. And then The Bray Family Band (Dad, son & daughter). The son was pretty good on guitar, banjo, & fiddle.
Smokin’ Pilchards are a quartet with a bit of spirit and attitude. Got my feet movin’ a bit. Then Mark Waistel who I mostly missed – a prolific songsmith with a lot of good material.
Annown followed and were pretty good, but I was having problems with the balance of the sound feed, They do have lots of good songs al based onCornish themes, unfortunately the recording is flawed technically. Naturally we particularly like their song “Wreckers” with the chorus
Hey ho wreckers, get yourselves down to the shore,
There’s enough barrels of whisky for a hundred men or more,
You can work the mine all day, a penny’s what you’ll get,
Or come join the wreckers you’ll be a rich man yet.
Finally Du Glas up from Penzance raised the party mood with and energetic theatrical lead singer/mandolin (Lucy Osborne) and some stomping tunes. Got us all dancing.
Monday
The sun came out again and my tech problems subsided so I was able to enjoy the day.
Starred with Tracy V, a strong bluesy folk singer with guitar and harmonizing pedal giving a fuller sound. Annoyingly the recording was marred by a hum loop build up until I switched to a different input. A great shame as she was very good and would be amazing in a club setting..
She was followed by Fable a duo of women with concertina & flute and harp. A lovely sound and good an mellow for a sunny midday set.
Steve Flanders, the sound engineerfor the FAR Stage, did a spot revealing another multi-talented member of the CFF Crew. Impressively good guitar and songs from various sources.
Luther Clayton was a young man from Tresmeer, Launceston doing mostly his own songs in a quiet but interesting style which is quite his own. Very nice voice.
Meand’er was another duo, he played guitar and she mandolin and sang. Finished with an entertaining climate ‘protest’ song – “Hang Your Underpants in the Breeze”
River Blue, a male quartet from the Scilly Isles started with a cover of Paul Simon’s “America”, but then did their own material inspired by their island home with some eminently dance-able tunes which started to get the audience moving.
Nicole Tesseyman gave us a chance to relax again and enjoy some fine singing by a proper Cornish maid from St.Ives. Very entertaining with observational songs from her life in St.Ives in a fishing family.
Bryher’s Boys are a male voice group from down West with sea shanties and Cornish folk songs – well it is the Cornwall Folk Festival so they fitted perfectly and were perfectly good..
Then it was time for locally lads The Stowes to really get the audience on their feet dancing up a storm. Fantastic stuff even in the trio format presented here (the bass player being temporarily away across the ocean). They played a great set and the crowd went wild.
More dancing followed as Jackson’s Claret closed the festival for the Nos Lowen dance. The dancing was ably led by a small group who know the dances and enabled the entire audience to join in the simple moves in a more structured form than the wild free-form that The Stowes had whipped up. Great fun.
Finally the festival finished, as the dusky summer evening gathered around us with a community acappella rendition of “Cornwall My Home” by the entire audience.
It was well dark by the time we had packed, and were homeward bound on the overground on a high from a great festival.